Abstract: In this thesis, I position the life histories and narratives of the Taiwanese (im)migrant diaspora in relationship to K'emk'emeláy, on unceded xʷməθkʷəy ̓ əm, Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Lands. I draw on critical inter-disciplinary literature to position Taiwaneseness as a diasporic settler subjectivity which is produced and enacted upon as the urgent need to root oneself. Such urgency animates and upholds the Asian- Indigenous impasse (Jafri, 2025), where relationships to Land remain incommensurable and Taiwaneseness remains cathected to the settler state. Through an Indigenized arts- based experimental ethnographic approach, I identify and conceptualize the (im)possibilities of Taiwanese (im)migrant diasporic settlerhood as relational dialectics. Relationships to Indigenous Lands and life, while identified as imperative, become re- weighed differently when narrated alongside the need to square Taiwanese identity. Nonetheless, these Taiwanese (im)migrant diasporic narratives are rehearsals of ways of knowing Taiwaneseness otherwise which bring the very forms of settler colonial belonging and relationality that define it into question.

To read the full MA thesis, please visit this SFU Summit link: https://summit.sfu.ca/item/40714 or view the full PDF below.